The present disclosure relates generally to an airflow indicator for use with wind musical instruments, and more specifically relates to an airflow indicator which is configured to engage the instrument proximate the bell, and to provide an optical indicator of airflow through the instrument.
The methods and apparatus discussed herein are applicable to the wind family of musical instruments, those instruments in which wind by a player in the form of oscillating waves result in the sound to a listener (otherwise known as both woodwind and brass-wind instruments). Primarily of concern for the present description are the “brass-wind” instruments, in which the buzzing of a player's lips within a generally cup-shaped mouthpiece creates oscillations which pass through the instrument and result in the ultimate sound and pitch of the instrument, and the embodiments herein will be described in relation to a brass-wind musical instrument. The most common of such brass-wind instruments include trumpets, cornets, horns (elsewhere herein referred to as French horns, to avoid any confusion), trombones, baritones, euphoniums, and tubas. But as is apparent to persons skilled in the art, there are many additional types of brass-winds, including cornopeans, mellophones, bugles (of various sizes and playing ranges), etc. It should also be noted that the term brass-wind originated at a time when most wind instruments which operated in the described manner, with the buzzing of a player's lips within a mouthpiece, were manufactured of brass (though even long ago, so-called “brass” musical instruments were sometimes constructed of other metals, including iron, silver, and copper). In the modern usage of the term, such brass-winds refers to instruments played in the described manner, and has no correlation with the actual material of which the instruments are constructed, with brass-winds also including increasing numbers of instruments formed in whole or in part of various plastics and/or carbon fiber. Thus, the term “brass-wind” as used herein refers to any musical instrument for which the sound is originated by the buzzing of a player's lips within a generally cup-shaped mouthpiece.
For players of wind instruments, and particularly of brass-wind instruments, because of the importance of the airflow generated by a player to effective control and operation of the instrument to produce pleasing musical sounds, much attention has been devoted over the years to various aids to assist the player in understanding the airflow they are generating; and also to understanding times when they may be inadvertently impairing that airflow relative to what would be desirable for playing the instrument in a given situation. For example, players at all levels are encouraged to relax the body while playing. But when a brass-wind player attempts to play something he or she perceives as difficult, a player may force, and sense resistance from the instrument, suggesting to them that they are flowing air into the mouthpiece at a significant rate, when in fact, much of that resistance is the result of the player executing the Valsalva maneuver, thereby closing the epiglottis and restricting the air flow.
Various devices have been used to assist such wind players to visualize their airflow, ranging from blowing at one or more targets, such as a piece of paper or a string, to using spirometers and other devices used for therapies in the medical community. In some cases these may be used by the player directly (i.e. just blowing into the device), and in other cases may used with a mouthpiece, with the player buzzing on the mouthpiece into the device, such that the visualization can reflect what occurs when the player is actually vibrating the lips in the manner necessary to create sound from the instrument.
What is been recognized by the present inventor is that a significant deficiency of such methods is that they may not reflect what is actually occurring when a player is attempting to perform with the instrument. This discrepancy between what may be observed with the instrument versus what may be seen away from the instrument can have many causes. Sometimes a player's conditioned physical responses with the instrument are different than when, for example, the player works only with the mouthpiece. In other situations, the player may move the valves of the instrument too slowly, or out of sync with changes in the lips, resulting in unintended and unrecognized disruptions in the airflow through the instrument. Such interruptions can result in “breaks” or other distortions of the sound of the instrument. The various embodiments and methods described and illustrated herein address the above-noted deficiency.